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MIU graduates plead for world to help their native Ukraine
Andy Hallman
Mar. 7, 2022 12:22 pm, Updated: Mar. 7, 2022 3:48 pm
FAIRFIELD — Military forces from Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, sending the country into a state of emergency and prompting at least 1.5 million people to flee Ukraine, according to NPR.
For Ukrainian couple Julia Kolesnyk and Yevheniy Rohozhnikov, they are watching the invasion unfold from afar, here in the United States. Kolesnyk and Rohozhnikov are both graduates of Maharishi International University in Fairfield, and now reside in Maryland. They are also both natives of the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, and all of their family members and extended family still live in Ukraine.
When Russia announced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Kolesnyk said it marked “the most dreadful period of my life.” She learned of the invasion through a text message from her 17-year-old sister in Lviv. The text message read, “Julia, war has begun. God help Ukraine.”
“I hope nobody should ever have to experience this feeling in their life,” Kolesnyk said.
Kolesnyk’s 14-year-old sister heard the sirens going off at 4 a.m. that day, and woke up the rest of the family. They all knew what the sirens meant. Kolesnyk’s youngest sister began crying, telling her family, “War has started. I want to live.”
When Kolesnyk spoke with The Union on March 2, she said “The Ukrainian people have not slept in six days.”
“Whenever people hear a siren, they run to a bomb shelter,” Kolesnyk said, adding that there are many “improvised bomb shelters” that are just the lowest level of 100-year-old buildings. “Anytime they leave the house, they have to bring all their documents, because they don’t know if they’ll ever come back to their homes.”
Russia borders Ukraine to the east, and that’s where Russian troops have seen the greatest advance, which includes attacking the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol, though the Ukrainian government still held these cities as of Monday, March 7. Russian troops are also amassing forces around the country’s capital, Kyiv, in the north central part of the country, where they have invaded with the help of neighboring Belarus.
The city of Lviv, because it is on the western edge of Ukraine, has not been attacked, but even there daily life has been interrupted. Kolesnyk said her mother works at a university, which has just gone on a mandatory two-week holiday. People are being told to stay home. Kolesnyk said one of her sisters is volunteering at a factory to provide food for the refugees who are fleeing from the east. She said “our Polish neighbors” to the west are shipping boxes of food into the country, and her sister is helping sort it out.
Staying behind to serve
Ukraine’s government is not allowing military-age men between the ages of 18-60 to leave the country, and this applies to Kolesnyk’s father, who will turn 55 this year. They are being asked to stay behind and serve their country. Kolesnyk said her mother and her two sisters are planning to stay in Lviv and help as much as they can, too.
Kolesnyk said that the number of people who have fled Ukraine represent a small percentage of the country’s 44 million people, and that most Ukrainians do not want to leave.
“There are long lines of men who are signing up for the armed forces,” she said. “Our people are so patriotic. Some regular people, not even in the army, have gone in front of a tank with empty hands and fallen on their knees to stop the tank.”
Kolesnyk said the Ukrainian military has been “making miracles happen” by standing up to a Russian army that is 10 times bigger.
“The world didn’t know Ukraine had such a strong army, which is protecting our beautiful land,” she said.
Helping from afar
Though they are thousands of miles away on the other side of the globe, Kolesnyk and her husband are doing their part to support Ukraine. On Feb. 27, they attended a “Stand with Ukraine” protest against the invasion in Washington, D.C. The protest featured not just Ukrainians but supporters from the United States and many other countries such as Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland, Georgia and Nepal, just to name a few.
Kolesnyk’s friends from around the world have offered their support, including friends from Russia.
“Multiple Russians I know, all very young, reached out with words of sympathy and said, ‘I am sorry this is happening,’” Kolesnyk said. “A Russian friend in Australia reached out to say they don’t want to speak Russian anymore. One even went to the protest in D.C. holding a Ukrainian flag and asking the U.S. to help Ukraine. That was very heartwarming.”
Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union, which lasted from 1917-1991. Kolesnyk said a majority of Ukrainians can understand the Russian language and many speak it fluently. It’s also common for Ukrainians to have relatives in Russia. In fact, both of Kolesnyk’s grandmothers are Russian, though they lived their lives in Ukraine.
However, speaking to her extended family in Russia about this invasion has been difficult for Kolesnyk and her immediate family. Kolesnyk said Russia’s media is not telling the public the truth about the war. For instance, she said the media twisted the image of the person on their knees in front of the tank, saying the person fell to their knees because they were happy to see the Russian army.
“We told our relatives in Russia all the details from the last couple of days, and they told us they don’t believe it,” Kolesnyk said. “Russia has imposed censorship. You can’t say anything bad about the president [Vladimir Putin].”
Early life
Kolesnyk said she considers herself “extremely lucky” to have grown up in Ukraine, and specifically the “picturesque” city of Lviv. Her youth consisted of daily trips to her grandmother’s house after school, and learning skills such as ballet, dance, piano and skiing. On weekends, the family went skiing in the Carpathian Mountains, played tennis or visited their vacation home.
“I loved growing up in Ukraine,” Kolesnyk said.
After high school, Kolesnyk obtained a bachelor’s degree in software engineering at Lviv Polytechnic National University, and then in 2013 enrolled at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, where she obtained her master’s degree in computer science. She met her husband while the two were in college in Lviv, and he followed her to Fairfield, where he also obtained a master’s degree in computer science from MIU a year and a half after Kolesnyk obtained hers. Kolesnyk finished her coursework in 2016, but waited until 2017 to graduate so she could graduate at the same time as her husband. Though the two had since moved to the east coast, they returned to Fairfield that year for graduation ceremonies.
‘Cyber army’
Today, Kolesnyk works as a program manager for an IT company specializing in cybersecurity. Her husband is the lead member of the technical staff for the company Athena Health. Since Russia’s invasion began, Kolesnyk said she and her husband have joined the “cyber army,” doing all they can to broadcast the truth of the invasion on their social media channels. Whenever Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivers a message, Kolesnyk shares it immediately.
Kolesnyk said she encourages the public to donate to people in Ukraine through websites such as https://supportukrainenow.org/ and https://savelife.in.ua/. The National Bank of Ukraine is accepting donations for Ukraine’s armed forces, whose page in English can be found here: https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi?fbclid=IwAR30nsdmsXVBW4PQs8yHNy6NgILOOgo8PiOV1adIYQPS4-LJEUnWfAkQp-0
Kolesnyk said she hopes NATO will come to Ukraine’s aid, particularly helping to stop Russian air attacks.
“We are praying that we will win this war very soon, and finally Russia will leave us in peace,” Kolesnyk said. “We need to help our army, and the whole world is helping us with that.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
Julia Kolesnyk wears a Ukrainian flag during the “Stand with Ukraine” protest against the Russian invasion held Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C. (Photo submitted)
Yevheniy Rohozhnikov, husband of Julia Kolesnyk, wears a Ukrainian flag during the “Stand with Ukraine” protest on Feb. 27. (Photo submitted)
Julia Kolesnyk, right, and her youngest sister, Victoria, stand near Taras Shevchenko Monument. Taras Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. “We are holding the Ukrainian flag to pay tribute to our beautiful country, proudly displaying our national identity,” Kolesnyk said. (Photo submitted)
Julia Kolesnyk and her family pose in front of Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Lviv, Ukraine. From left are Julia, father Andriy, middle sister Yana, youngest sister Victoria, and mother Svitlana. (Photo submitted)
Yevheniy Rohozhnikov lifts his wife Julia Kolesnyk outside the Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Lviv, Ukraine. (Photo submitted)
After leaving Ukraine to study at Maharishi International University in 2013, Julia Kolesnyk did not see her family for eight years. This photo was taken in 2021 when they were finally able to reunite in Ukraine. Julia and her husband Yevheniy Rohozhnikov are pictured in the middle, along with Julia’s family and her mother-in-law, Volodymyra Shchepanska. (Photo submitted)
Julia Kolesnyk, left, and her sisters, Yana and Victoria, are seen visiting the Taras Shevchenko Monument. (Photo submitted)